Zalman ZM850-HP and ZM1000-HP
by Christoph Katzer on June 27, 2008 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Efficiency and PFC
850W
1000W
First of all the efficiency is great. With 230VAC it stays just above 85% from 180W to 700/800W of load, which is really good for a power supply. With lower input such as 120VAC it unfortunately cannot reach that same level of performance, but 83% at low load, 85% with medium load, and 82% with full load are also good results. The 1000W unit performs equally well in comparison to the 850W version, since it has almost the same efficiency with lower loads. The highest score today is 87% efficiency, reached by the 850W unit at around 400W of load and by the 1000W unit with 500W of load.
The power factor correction as usual doesn't look so good with higher input voltage. It reaches a reasonable level at high loads but it needs a long time to get on track. With 90 and 120VAC it looks quite different. Here it starts high and stays high as it should.
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batpau19 - Friday, June 27, 2008 - link
They (ridiculously overpowered PSUs) *are* a joke, and yet I am buying one.Acoustics, modularity, warranty, etc. are all there. When you look at lower powered versions or other models, you consistently lose at least one of these qualities.
Point me in the direction of the 350 watt power supply that has a 3-5 year warranty, modular cabling, and silent operation and I'm sold.
Problem is, the @5$hat PSU makers just don't do that sort of thing.
hechacker1 - Saturday, June 28, 2008 - link
I agree. Even anandtech has used a kill-a-watt to determine actual load wattage.I can think of a couple things:
1. People recommend exaggerated PSU's because cheap PSU don't actually live up to their marketing. Illegal, but how can you sue somebody for poor efficiency?
2. Maybe peak load can't be accurately determined from the PSU use of power. I can imagine a loaded system that might need 1000w only for a short second, before dropping to something more manageable.
I do wish that Anandtech would investigate the issue. I personally bought an expensive Enermax PSU a long time ago, 400w, and it seems to handle all the latest hardware without any problem. But the reason I bought it was precisely because it was highly efficient and actually delivered it's rated wattage.
mindless1 - Saturday, June 28, 2008 - link
yet you don't need those things at all.If buying a lower wattage PSU it often has fewer leads so you don't have many if any to get rid of by modularly unplugging them.
If it doesn't cost 4X as much, it's easy to overlook it not having a 3-5 year warranty.
Silent operation is not a good thing by itself. Operation in response to temperature is a good thing. If you don't have good case cooling it shouldn't be silent. If you do, many PSU are easily ran close enough to silent (close enough it is something else you hear rather than a PSU pointed to the back of the system). However, all else equal you do still have a valid point in that if a unit is engineered capable of a higher load that means higher thermal load as well, meaning lower operating temp thresholds at an even lower system load than it's spec'd for.
Perhaps more to the point, in response to what the prior person wrote about reviewing PSU more suitable for 85% of the users, you don't really need reviews for that. You can randomly pick one of several name brand PSU in the $40 range on sale or with a rebate and do fine for that sub-200W peak consuming system. No need to be really picky about one then so long as you don't get one with an exceptionally loud or short lived fan. Just don't try to cut wattage too much, that $40 range will get a 500W PSU and that affords more margin even if overrated than a same quality tier 350W would.
bob4432 - Saturday, June 28, 2008 - link
guess the closest you are going to get is the antec ea series, but not modular. imho, for the price i would put up w/ the cables, but again, that is me.ahodge - Friday, June 27, 2008 - link
http://www.mgecompany.com/xg/products_powersupplie...">http://www.mgecompany.com/xg/products_powersupplie...This one has been around for a long time too.
I'm actually quite surprised that anandtech would mess up like this in an article. It's the first time I've noticed such a silly mistake like this. Usually you guys seem to really do your research. Oh well.
bob4432 - Friday, June 27, 2008 - link
makes me wonder if they are doing these reviews just to get extra product and advertisers $$$ or us? sadly, i am kind of leaning further one way as not many need a 1KW unit....zagood - Friday, June 27, 2008 - link
"...and now we have the first and only power supplies with heatpipe cooling."Zalman ZM750-HP
Zalman ZM600-HP
Zalman ZM500-HP
Thermaltake PurePower 350W Fanless Heatpipe
Not the first, and not the only.
Turas - Friday, June 27, 2008 - link
I mostly ike for how queit it is. I think they said at 500W it is only 17db. that is nice. If you look at a lot o the 5-600W power supplies they make a lot more noice as you get into the 400 + range. So even though the power is not needed it allows you to have a quiet machine since the power never really ramps up to the capacities.larson0699 - Friday, June 27, 2008 - link
This is definitely for the guy splurging on those 2 or 3 GTX280's.But most of the systems I build use less than 200W at load.
At 25% load any PSU bites on efficiency.
I like Zalman's concept, though. Just wish they'd cater to the majority.
Turas - Friday, June 27, 2008 - link
I too am wondering if maybe you had a faulty switch or something. silentpcreview also did a review of the unit and in their testing they did notice a slight difference to the better with the sounds turned on. They focus mostly on the acoustic side of things and even have sound recordings.I am glad to see to great reviews though from different sites. I think I am going to order one up now.